Psalms 72:16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

There shall be a handful of corn Which intimates the small beginnings of this kingdom, and therefore does not agree to that of Solomon, which was, in a manner, as large at the beginning of his reign as at the end of it; but it exactly agrees to Christ and his kingdom, Matthew 13:31-33. In the earth That is, sown in the earth. The seed is the word of God. That on good ground are they, who, in an honest and good heart, a heart made honest and good by grace, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, Luke 8:11, &c.; bring forth first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear, Mark 4:26-28. Such, reader, is the progress of this handful of seed cast into the ground; though upon the top of the mountains That is, in the most barren soil. It produces a number of converts, all born again of incorruptible seed by the word, 1 Peter 1:23; and in each convert the fruit of genuine repentance, of living faith, and of true holiness. The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon It shall yield such an abundant increase, that the ears, being thick and high, and full of corn, shall, when they are shaken by the wind, make a noise not unlike that which the tops of the trees of Lebanon sometimes make, upon the like occasion. Which expressions, as well as many others of the like nature, in the prophets, being applied to Christ and his kingdom, are to be understood in a spiritual sense, of the great and happy success of the preaching of the gospel. And they of the city That is, the citizens of Jerusalem, which are here put for the subjects of this kingdom. Shall flourish like the grass of the earth Shall both increase in number and in grace, being fruitful in every good word and work.